Keeping warm

• Photo courtesy of Butcher & Baecker Construction, Rochester Hills, Mich.
• Photo courtesy of Butcher & Baecker Construction, Rochester Hills, Mich.
• Photo courtesy of Butcher & Baecker Construction, Rochester Hills, Mich.

The large, statuesque vacation houses located on a peninsula between the marina of Bay Harbor, Mich., and Little Traverse Bay of Lake Michigan provide a striking, beautiful view. During the summer, the bay area is a picture of serenity and relaxation—a vacationer's dream.

However, as cold weather approaches, the dark side of Lake Michigan emerges, bringing with it frigid temperatures, high winds and blizzard conditions.

It was during the tumultuous winter season that Butcher & Baecker Construction Co. Inc., Rochester Hills, Mich., was chosen to install a roof system on one of the new vacation homes, Peninsula 13. Construction began in winter to meet the owner's request for a summer completion.

Starting fresh

For the new construction project, Butcher & Baecker Construction was asked to install 8,000 square feet (743 m²) of 24-inch (610-mm) by 3/4-of-an-inch (19-mm) Handsplit-and-Resawn Heavies Blue Label Western Red Cedar Shakes, which were chosen for their beauty, durability and high-wind resistance, says Patrick Butcher, president of Butcher & Baecker Construction.

Butcher & Baecker Construction also installed a 600-square-foot (56-m²), 20-ounce (567-g) copper flat-locked roof system and 400-square-foot (37-m²) Firestone 160 APP-modified bitumen roof system, which went under a captain's walk on top of the house. The company also used stainless-steel staples for the cedar shakes and installed rosin paper directly under the copper.

The rosin paper functioned as a separator between the copper and the self-adhering, polymer-modified bitumen underlayment, preventing contamination during the soldering process and prohibiting potential electrolysis. The company used pneumatic staplers to fasten the shakes, and the copper was pre-tinned and soldered with 50/50 lead bars.

Average daily temperatures in the area usually are in the mid-teens during winter. During the installation, the roofing crew often faced below-average temperatures, 50-mph (80-km/h) winds and blizzard-condition snow.

"We had a warming trailer on-site and an enclosure in the building for fabrication and warming," Butcher says. "The cold and wind made it difficult for the roofing workers to produce the precision required for the mitered hips and valleys. To overcome this, they dressed in many thin layers.

"Staying properly dressed was essential to safety and productivity," Butcher continues. "The many thin layers allowed more flexibility and dexterity than one heavy layer would while still keeping the workers warm."

The wood shake roof system's mitered hips and valleys made the project increasingly difficult.

"Usually, hips are covered with a preformed capping and valleys are left open," Butcher says. "The mitering process required every piece to not only be cut perfectly but also to be absolutely precise in coursing. Each piece had to line up exactly to achieve the perfect visual result. The leeway that exists when you cover the hips and leave the valleys open just was not available."

For safety reasons, especially in the face of icy conditions, the company used harnesses and man lifts.

"It was absolutely essential to maintain all safety standards and be diligent in following them," Butcher says. "Just as in the mitering process, there was no room for error."

Rewards

"The Cedar Shake and Shingle Bureau gave us huge praise and featured the job on the cover of its brochure," Butcher says. "They said they had never seen such outstanding workmanship and were especially impressed with the workmanship of the eyebrow and, of course, the mitering. Seeing how well the finished product turned out was especially rewarding on this project because of the difficult nature of the mitering process. It was so unusual and so difficult, and it turned out so perfectly."

Krista Reisdorf is associate editor of Professional Roofing magazine.

Project name: Peninsula 13
Project location: Bay Harbor, Mich.
Project duration: January 2004-May 2004
Roof system type: Cedar shake
Roofing contractor: Butcher & Baecker Construction Co. Inc., Rochester Hills, Mich.
Roofing manufacturer: Firestone Building Products Co., Indianapolis, and Grace Construction Products, Cambridge, Mass.